Lancaster County Digitization Project

The Lancaster County Digitization Project was a county-wide consortium of cultural institutions interested in digitizing Lancaster county newspaper and manuscript collections. The consortium was formed in the spring of 2004, with regularly scheduled meetings at the Lancaster County Historical Society, and other member institutions. This group was the core that later grew to become the PA Digital Cultural Heritage Collaborative. The first five years activities are noted.

  • 2004-2005
    • Built communication channels and collaborative effort among 8 local institutions.
    • Evaluated leading software options and vendors for digitization.
    • Preservation microfilming of the New Holland Clarion newspaper through the NEH funded Pennsylvania Newspapers Project.
    • Digitization of the Columbia Spy newspaper (1850-1870) through Penn State’s PA Civil War Newspapers Collection.
    • Received LSTA grant funding for digitization of the Columbia Spy newspaper (1830-1850, 1870-1889).
    • Digitization of The College Reporter student newspaper (1987-2001) through the F&M President’s Office/Friends of the Library.
  • 2005-2006
    • Presented poster and webinar sessions on cooperative digitization at regional conferences.
    • Received local press coverage of the LCDP, and Columbia Spy newspaper digitization.
    • Received Millersville University Friends of the Library funding for digitization of The Snapper student newspaper (1995-2005).
    • Digitization of the remaining Columbia Spy newspaper (1830-1850, 1870-1889) through the PA Dept. of Education/LSTA and the Lancaster County Historical Society
    • Digitization of The College Reporter student newspaper – phase 2 (1964-1987) through the F&M Friends of the Library.
    • Conducted site visits to Penn State University Libraries Digitization & Preservation Department, Lehigh University Digital Library, and OCLC Preservation Services.
  • 2006-2007
    • Conducted one day LCDP Strategic Planning Retreat at Millersville University.
    • Digitization of the F&M Student Weekly newspaper – phase 3 (1915-1964) through the F&M Friends of the Library and Digital Preservation funds.
    • Presented Poster Session on LCDP and Collaborative Digitization at 13th National ACRL Conference, Baltimore, MD.
    • Conducted one day LCDP Consultation Meeting with Ed Galloway, Coordinator, Digital Research Library, University of Pittsburgh.
  • 2007-2008
    • Digitization of twenty years of the Lancaster Journal weekly newspaper, 1816-1836, through an $8,000 grant from the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation.
    • Digitization of the New Holland Clarion newspaper (1873-1950) through the PA Dept. of Education/LSTA and the Lancaster County Historical Society.• Digitization of the Millersville University Snapper (1993-2005) through the Keystone Library Network.
    • Implementation of DSpace open source institutional repositories by Lancaster Theological Seminary and Franklin and Marshall College
  • 2008-2009
    • Digitization of the F&M College Days and F&M Weekly newspapers – phase 4 (1873-1915) through the F&M Friends of the Library and Digital Preservation funds. 
    • Received local press coverage of the LCDP, and New Holland Clarion newspaper digitization.
    • Migrated LCDP website to interactive WetPaint website.
    • Digitized ten bound volumes the Lancaster Farmer (1875-1884) as part of Palinet’s Mass Digitization Collaborative in association with the Internet Archive.
    • PA Dept. of Education/LSTA grant awarded to Millersville University and Dickinson College to extend their collaborative project Slavery & Abolition in the US.